53°44′45.5″N0°19′58.5″W / 53.745972°N 0.332917°W | |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
---|---|
Official name | Wilberforce Monument |
Designated | 13 October 1952 |
Reference no. | 1283041 |
Location | Queen's Gardens, Kingston upon Hull, England |
Designer | W. H. Clark (column) Feort (statue) |
Builder | Myers and Wilson |
Material | Ashlar Gritstone |
Height | 110 feet (34 m) |
Beginning date | 1 August 1834 |
Completion date | 12 November 1835 |
Dedicated to | William Wilberforce |
The Wilberforce Monument is a monument honoring English politician and abolitionist William Wilberforce in Kingston Upon Hull, England. The ashlar structure consists of a Doric column topped by a statue of Wilberforce. Construction on the monument began in 1834 and was completed the following year. In 2011, it was designated a Grade II listed structure.
William Wilberforce was born into a wealthy family in Kingston upon Hull in 1759. [1] In 1780, he became a Member of Parliament (MP), a position he would hold until 1825. [1] In 1787, following a conversion to evangelical Christianity, Wilberforce became a vocal abolitionist and championed anti-slavery causes in the House of Commons. [1] He died in 1833, several days after the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. [1]
Within five days of his death, the mayor of Kingston upon Hull was petitioned to erect a monument in his honour. [2] [3] The monument would be paid for through donations, [2] and as a result, fundraising efforts quickly commenced. [1] The total cost for the monument would be approximately £1,250. [2] W. H. Clarks of Leeds was selected to design the monument as a Doric column. [2] While Clarks was also responsible for overseeing the erection of the monument, the actual building was carried out by Myers and Wilson. [2] On 1 August 1834, the date on which the Slavery Abolition Act went into effect, [1] the monument's cornerstone was laid by Richard Bethell MP. [2] [3] While several locations in the city had been considered (including Kingston Square and several locations near the banks of the Humber), the location that had ultimately been selected was Whitefriargate, near the Princes Quay dock. [2] A statue, initially only an afterthought of the monument committee, was also commissioned and created by Feort, a local sculptor. [2] Construction was completed with the placement of the statue on 12 November 1835. [1]
In the 1930s, the dock near the monument closed and new traffic plans for the area were drafted. [2] The monument was viewed as a traffic hazard for the area between Whitefriargate and Queen Victoria Square, [4] [3] and arrangements were made to relocate the monument. [2] A new location was selected for the eastern end of Queen's Gardens. [4] In early 1935, Hull City Council voted to approve an offer from Councillor Robert Greenwood Tarran to move the monument using his construction company, Tarran Industries Ltd, with the total cost of the move estimated at £1,500. [4] Work started in April and lasted for four months. [4] At the new location, a time capsule was prepared that included articles from the Hull Times and Hull Daily Mail , a detailed explanation of how and why the monument was moved (including photographs and maps of the two locations), several coins (including a Jubilee Crown), a Wilberforce House Medal and papers relating to the history of Tarran Industries. [4] During the move, tourists could pay to climb the scaffolding at both locations as an observation deck, with the money raised going to a local charity. [4] The original location of the monument is now part of the Princes Quay shopping centre. [2] On 19 September 1935, the gardens were opened by Herbert Morrison and the monument was rededicated by the wife of Arnold Reckitt, Wilberforce's great-granddaughter. [4]
On 13 October 1952, the monument was designated as a Grade II listed structure, with Historic England noting that the monument represents "an early use of the commemorative column in England". [1]
In 2020, during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom, Professor Trevor Burnard, director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull, defended the monument and stated that while other monuments were under review due to their subjects' connections to the Atlantic slave trade, Wilberforce stood in direct opposition to slavery and, according to Burnard, he "knew that Black Lives Mattered". [5]
The monument is made of ashlar blocks that form a fluted Doric column. [1] This column stands atop a cubic plinth that is moulded with a plain cornice. [1] At each corner of the top of this pedestal is acroteria and an urn. [1] Each face of the plinth bears an inscription surrounded by a wreath, with those inscriptions reading "Erected by Voluntary Subscription", "First Stone Laid, 1 August 1834", "Negro Slavery Abolished, 1 Aug. MDCCCXXXIV", and "Wilberforce". [1] At the top of the column is a square capital carrying a corniced tholobate atop which a statue of William Wilberforce, carved out of gritstone, [2] stands. [1] The total height of the monument is approximately 110 feet (34 m). [note 1] Historian Marcus Wood notes that the monument as a whole "mimics Nelson's column". [9]
William Wilberforce was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, and became an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an Evangelical Anglican, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform.
Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea and 37 miles (60 km) south-east of York, the historic county town. With a population of 268,852 (2022), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region after Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford.
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Wilberforce House is a British historic house museum, part of the Museums Quarter of Kingston-upon-Hull. It is the birthplace of social reformer William Wilberforce (1759–1833), who used his time as a member of Parliament to work for the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. Like the nearby Blaydes House and Maister House, also on the High Street, the Grade I listed building was formerly a merchant's house with access to quayside on the River Hull.
The Hull Daily Mail is an English regional daily newspaper for Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Hull Daily Mail has been circulated in various guises since 1885. A second edition, the East Riding Mail, covers East Yorkshire outside the city of Hull. The paper publishes everyday except Sunday.
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Kingston upon Hull City Police was the police force responsible for policing the city of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England from 1836 until 1974, when it was amalgamated under the Local Government Act 1972 with parts of other forces to form the Humberside Police.
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Oriel Chambers is a Grade II listed building which, since 2006, has housed the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation. It is located in the city of Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
The Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation is a research institute at the University of Hull, in Kingston upon Hull, England. Housed in Oriel Chambers in Hull City Centre, since 2005, its aim is to research slavery in the past and the present.
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Whitefriargate is a pedestrianised street in the Old Town area of Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. During the 20th century, it was one of the main shopping streets in the city centre, but some of the major stores have closed down, which has been attributed to out of town shopping centres. However, the Street still provides a useful link to and from the old town of Hull.
High Street is a road in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull in East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Located in the city's old town close to the River Hull, it features a number of historic buildings. Historically a high street it was once the commercial heart of the port settlement of Hull – which later shifted westwards to centre around Whitefriargate.